Astronomy Class Activity - Lunar Geology

[Ad Astra]

Hi Folks!

We had a wonderful clear night last night - so my astronomy classes had lab night at the stadium! Clear and warm finally - after so many cold and cloudy nights.

We did an exciting Lunar Geology lab using a binocular and a 6" dobsonian telescope - and I've attached the lab here for all my SGL friends and students!

The Earth's surface changes so fast, and plants and Man's works make it hard to see geologic change on Earth's surface some times. The Moon is different - no air, no water, no tectonic movement, no erosion! The Moon's surface is almost everywhere over 3 billion years old, and it preserves changes perfectly. We can use a telescope and see landslides, lava flows, lava river beds (rilles), huge basins and of course, craters with their central mountains, basins, ejecta blankets and rays - lots of exciting features.

We are in first quarter and it is the perfect time to look for signs of geologic change along the Moon's terminator (the boundary between light and dark on the surface).

Try this lab activity and let me know how you do!

Dan

Lab 14 - Finding Lunar Geologic Change.doc

[Skylook123]

Good one again, Dan. Too often at our school events, the teachers do the scavenger hunt and give the students a list of five types of things to view, without any context of WHAT they are viewing; seems more important to log a planet, cluster, nebula, galaxy, without noting the special attraction of the object. Sometimes I say we help them look, not see. They don't get away with that at my scope, but only because I'm easily bored and have fun leading them down the path of discovery.

Thanks for the attachment; it will help at my next outreach.

You Da Man

[Ad Astra]

We had a lot of fun with this last night. Kids with 7x50's sketching the moon, then 150mm f/8 dobs and our Orion 120 EON refractor came out - my Sis also brought her husband and her 120mm Meade refractor along - we set up in the football stadium. Including myself and Mrs. Astra, there were an even 50 people there .

The night remained warm, over 20 C, which was a relief after several cold and damp weeks. We had even had RAIN (real wet stuff from the sky!) It was quite horrible really - the roads were actually damp! This rain stuff has to be really terrible for you - cause all of our nice brown and rocky hills are turning a livid green!

None of the wet stuff that night - the crescent moon was everyone's focus and we were able to see several craters along the terminator large enough to have central mount features. One even showed a number of roughly concentric slide zones inside the crater where rim material has slid down into the basin as gravity and geologic forces shape the crater into a form that is stable over geologic time. One nice rille across a flooded basin (nectaris?).

Kids (and several parents there) were all thrilled with views of Luna. What seemed to amaze them most was the amount of detail that began to reveal itself as soon as you took the time to look for them. Some of the drawings were works of art - I'll see if there is some way I can get permission to post them.

I hope some others have had fun with this activity as well!

Dan